Prose Pastorals. By Herbert Milton Sylvester. (Ticknor and Co., Boston,
U.S.A.)—The main portion of Mr. Sylvester's work is description of Nature. This description is somewhat too verbose. Masters of the art produce their efforts with words fewer by much. Still, it is evident that he is a careful and enthusiastic observer ; and the work of such an one cannot fail to have some successes. The writer, besides being a lover of Nature, is a lover of angling, and his best pictures are drawn from the scenery of streams. Some of the remoter districts of the New England States seem to furnish good trout-fishing. But it gives one a disagreeable feeling to read of the newly caught trout. "What a hornpipe he dances in the grass-lined basket ! It is the dance of death to him ; but to me it is a rare panacea for broken rest and overworked body and brain." Is not this a little brutal ? Surely every humane angler gives the finishing stroke to the creature as soon as he is caught. But to get refreshment from its death-struggle ! Why, it is worthy of Domitian.
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